Rethinking Education

Rethinking Dropout Prevention

There has been a recent tendency to panic over the dismal high school graduation rates in many places. It is cause for alarm and hopefully we have a wake up call across this country that we have a serious issue with young people not completing high school. However there is a word of caution...students don't just decide to dropout when they hit ninth grade. In NC we give young people permission to dropout at the age of 16 and for many young people who struggle in school that means either the end of eighth grade of early ninth grade. But dropping out does not start at ninth grade it starts much earlier when students start to fail, do not master the basic skills early, are socially promoted without the necessary mastery of subject matter, stop doing homework and skip school. It starts when parents decide that children do not need their daily supervision and encouragement is critical to their child's success. It starts when parents allow children to skip their homework because either the parent or child is too busy to get it done. It starts when parents do not demand that their older elementary and middle school students do not have the best teachers and demand accountability. I have even heard parents say "middle school doesn't matter because it does not count". I would argue that grades four through eight are some of the most critical grades for students.

Academically students are required to do higher level thinking skills the higher the grade but you cannot do higher order thinking if you have not mastered the basics of reading and math. We should not breathe a sigh of relief when our child barely passes the End of Grade test because this is clear indicator that they have not mastered the subject. The question we need to ask is yes they passed but have they mastered the skills and are they at sufficient grade level to succeed in the next grade.

I am very fearful as we begin a new level of accountability that students in high school will need to score Level 3 on their End of Course test to complete the course that we will see even more students dropout because they cannot meet the new requirements. No longer will just passing the course be sufficient. They must pass with a much higher level of accountability.

I urge policymakers, school leaders, parents and others to pay much more attention to the students "in the middle". These are critical years for students academically, socially and emotionally. These are the years that students engage more actively with their peers. These are the years that they start to practice what parents have tried to embed in them. These are the years that they make decisions that will impact them for a lifetime whether it is to become sexually active, join a gang, start skipping school, quit completing their homework. These are the years we often see parents start to pull away from their children, become less involved in their schooling and sometimes give them too much independence.

As we attack with vigor the high school graduation rates in the state, let us be sure that we are attacking it at the root causes not just what is the most apparent. Let us make sure that we are building a continuum of support and services to help our children succeed. In NC we have done a good job of providing support and resources to early education and preschool and now high school reform but let us not forget the children in the middle. If we do not invest wisely in the middle grades and realize that dropout prevention is critical in these grades then we will continue to see our efforts too little too late.

Communities In Schools one of the largest community based network of local organizations focused on dropout prevention provides services and interventions at every grade level. We have learned that graduation increases also means that we must help students succeed in school at every grade level and also ensure that we are preparing them for their future. There is compelling new research that shows that you can predict student graduation rates by looking at fourth grade so why are we waiting? Let's rethink dropping out as a steady progression not a one time event.